Istanbul: commercial cases for the whole province are now heard at Çağlayan — maritime claims go to the 17th Commercial Court.

By a decision published in the Official Gazette on 20 February 2026, the Council of Judges and Prosecutors abolished the Bakırköy, Istanbul Anatolian and Küçükçekmece commercial courts, merged them into the Istanbul commercial courts and set the jurisdiction of the Istanbul commercial courts as the whole of Istanbul province, to apply from the date the three courts stopped work; their files were transferred to Istanbul. The courts stopped taking new cases in July 2026. What it means for a vessel in an Istanbul port:

• One courthouse. A commercial case about a vessel at Ambarlı, Tuzla, Haydarpaşa or a Bosphorus anchorage is filed at the Çağlayan courthouse; the European and Anatolian sides no longer have separate commercial courts.
• The maritime court. Where there are several commercial courts, the Council may assign one or more of them exclusively to cases on maritime commerce and marine insurance (TCC art. 5). In Istanbul that court is the 17th Commercial Court, whose jurisdiction covers the whole province; in İzmir it is the 5th Commercial Court, for the whole of İzmir province, Aliağa included.
• What does not change. For a foreign-flagged vessel only the court of the place where she lies can order the arrest (TCC art. 1355), and the order still goes to the enforcement office within three business days (TCC art. 1364).

Court allocations are set by the Council and change from time to time; we confirm the court when we file. The Ambarlı and Tuzla port pages and the guide Which court for your port? were updated on 28 September 2026.

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